KOTA KINABALU: About 4pm on June 6, 1976, Donald Mojuntin 11 was playing badminton with his younger brother Charles while waiting for their father Datuk Peter Mojuntin to come home.
They were passing time waiting for their father who was to officiate at the finals of the Datuk Peter Mojuntin Shield tournament in Penampang that day.
Little did they know that their lives would forever be changed as the light aircraft their father was in, crashed upon approaching the state capital.
Donald who was met after the Double Six memorial service organised by City Hall on behalf of the state government said this when asked what was he doing that fateful day when Sabah lost its leaders and he, his father.
“I was an 11-year-old boy, playing badminton with my nine-year-old brother. We were waiting for our father to come back from Labuan to officiate the finals of the Datuk Peter Mojuntin Shield in Penampang, and it was about 4 to 5pm.
“From what I can remember, my maternal grandfather Datuk Lidwin Mobijohn drove into the house compound and he looked anxious. He got out of the car and called our mom into the house.
“That was the time we had a dreadful feeling, so to speak, and when I saw an airplane pass overhead at that moment, I was praying that the feeling of dread I was feeling had nothing to do with our Dad because I heard my grandfather telling my mom just before they went into the house that there had been a plane accident.
“For me personally I really had that dreadful feeling,” he said when relating what had happening on June 6, 37 years ago.
According to him the children were not told anything immediately as their grandfather brought their mother to the hospital to wait for the bodies to be extricated from the crash site.
“After that it was a haze for me. The next thing I knew we were busy with the (funeral) arrangements (and) the body was brought home from the hospital. I can remember that there were a lot of people at the house, being an 11-year-old boy, it was hazy, it was like a sea of people in the house.
“My dad looked like he was asleep as he was the only one who was more or less intact,” he said with a wistful smile.
To the question if he would have ventured into politics if the crash did not occur, Donald said that it could have happened either way for him.
“It might have been either way. If he had still been around, I might have still ventured into politics. It would be better because I would have had his guidance etc. Ironically, because of the incident I had no inclination to be in politics.
“It took a long time for family members to get closure from the incident. After that then things just happened and I found myself in politics in the early 90s,” he said when asked if his decision to venture into politics was because he wanted to continue what his late father had started.
Donald stressed that the state leaders who perished in the crash had epitomize real unity in Sabah.
They represented a common purpose, irrespective of race, religion, he said adding: “I think that was one of the best times. For us now, we can perhaps learn from that. We need to get people together without due consideration of race, religion. No hang ups about race or religion. We should be Sabahans.
He is of the opinion that the unity of the past is not felt in Sabah at the moment and he felt that people are still searching for it.
“The best example (is) 1Malaysia – they are trying to get that elusive real unity in the sense that everybody is patriotic about something, for the state and country. We can learn a lot from our previous leaders. We are the prime example of unity irrespective of race.
“Perhaps we should learn from this tragedy. Basically what happened to them is history for us but at the same time it shows us that we have leaders that can be taken away from us just like that. It is also a lesson for leaders nowadays; they have to do their job because they might not be around tomorrow to see things through. To my mind leadership is about focus on what is good for everybody,” he said.
Donald also expressed his gratitude to the state government for organizing the memorial day for the Double Six tragedy, adding that he hoped that people would take the opportunity to learn more about Sabah’s history.